Since 1971, the Greene Farm Barn has stood as a feature on the corner of Hobson and Greene roads. Now, steps are being taken to find a new use for it, as five residents take spots on the new Greene Farm Barn ad hoc committee.
Forest preserve president Daniel Hebreard, who was sworn in last month, is excited to see what new ideas the committee brings forward.
“The goal of the committee is to define what we could do. What would be the best use for community needs and then find funding,” said Hebreard. “To see if there would be interested parties in the community, business partnerships, non-for profit partnerships to help us decide if we could move forward with that project.”
A couple of citizen interest meetings were held in the fall to generate ideas for what to do with the barn. Committee chairwoman Rachel Jenness hopes to find historical meaning to whatever they choose to do.
“The Greene barn is a bit of a sanctuary for people. You can tell that they just feel really calm and at peace there and it’s just beautiful. So I’ve always been interested in it,” said Jenness.
The two “nay” votes against the formation of the committee were Al Murphy and Jeffrey Redick.
Redick doesn’t believe that the committee is a good way to use staff resources, as a motion to continue maintaining the barn was passed in 2016, without finding a future use of the barn beyond landmark.
“There’s been no change. In programming ideas or anything else,” said Redick. “And in fact when we took that vote 18 months ago it was with the purpose that in the event that an outside group comes forward with funding and an idea for use that’s consistent with our programming goals that we would revisit it.”
While Redick has reservations, he’s interested in seeing what the committee comes up with.
Naperville News 17’s Antonia Acuna reports.
